Regarding the recent revival of the tetration thread, there is a plugin available for this forum which automatically closes threads after a certain period of inactivity. They can be reopened if a moderator wants to do so. I thought this might be useful, and thought it might be useful for others to know of its existence so that Scott can gauge whether there's enough support to consider installing it. (Hope that's okay, Scott!)

Of course, someone can simply open a new thread on an old topic, but that's a little more effort so makes it unlikely that a "random passerby" will do so. Moreover, if someone does want to post something legitimate on an old thread, it would be better to start a new thread, summarising some key points from the old one, and thus we don't have to re-read the whole of the old thread to get an idea of what the new posting is about.

However, there may be objections that I've overlooked and so if anyone spots them, best to record them here so that if Scott likes the idea, he has all the information necessary.

(I make no presumption that Scott will like this idea, I haven't contacted him about it.)

I would not like some of the Sticky threads to be closed after some period of inactivity, though. Can the plug-in be configured so that sticky threads are not closed?

I agree with Jose and Willie's suggestions. I don't know if the plugin currently has this ability, but I would think it easy enough to adapt it to make it do so.

This plugin looks suitable without any modification: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/377-auto-close

(If you would like me to test it beforehand, I can do so on my test forum.)